Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra on Wednesday, Aug. 12, shrugged off accusations that that the Department Justice (DOJ) will also fail to prosecute those behind the killing of National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) peace consultant Randall “Randy” Echanis.
“The DOJ will just go ahead and do what it is duty-bound to do,” Guevarra said in response to the accusations made by human rights group Karapatan.
“It has already directed the NBI forensic investigation division to verify or confirm the identity of the deceased ASAP (as soon as possible),” added Guevarra, chairman of the Inter-Agency Committee on Extra-Judicial Killings, Enforced Disappearances, Torture and Other Grave Violations of the Right of Life, Liberty and Security of Persons.
The inter-agency committee was formed back in 2012 pursuant to Administrative Order (AO) 35 issued by then President Benigno Aquino III.
Guevarra gave the NBI the directive to verify the identity of the victim amid police claims that the remains was not that of Echanis.
The secretary also instructed the DOJ’s AO 35 Task Force to conduct the investigation on the killing of Echanis.
However, Karapatan has issued a statement expressing distrust on the task force’s investigation and instead urged the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) to investigate the murder of Echanis.
“It bears noting that the CHR forms part of the AO 35 mechanism,” explained DOJ Undersecretary Markk Perete.
“It's investigation reports normally form part of the case records acted upon by the Task Force,” the DOJ spokesman noted.
Karapatan secretary general Cristina Palabay sought for the CHR to conduct the investigation of the case since hundreds of activists have been killed during the administration of President Duterte and “the DOJ’s task force has failed to bring none of them to justice and hold their perpetrators accountable.”
“How can there be trust with this task force when the police are already blatantly pulling all the cruel and wicked maneuvers to obstruct justice for Ka Randy Echanis? This is becoming more and more like a cold-blooded State-sponsored murder being covered up by the police,” Palabay said.